Armin Shimerman Movies

Jolene (Celia Weston) appears as a panelist on the TV talk show "Working Women." Her description of working conditions at Mel's Diner succeed in driving all of Mel's customers out of his establishment and into a nearby hamburger joint. As a result, Mel (Vic Tayback) is forced to put his diner--and everything else he owns--up for auction! ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

In this family-fun type of film, two brothers who have apparently inherited their recently deceased father's inventor-type genes decide to finish their pop's robot invention, sell it for big bucks, and keep mom out of the poorhouse. They put together the metal man named Newman who somehow has absorbed the dead dad's spirit and can talk. The boys are wowed to find that Dad's back! But then the bad guys arrive (of course) in the form of an electronics company wanting in on the Newman-robot invention and by an abrupt gal reporter who wants the big scoop. Looming out in the troubled fringes too, are the dopes responsible for the kids' dad's demise. These kids are up to all of this and, along with the robot, they're out to rack up one for the 'good guys.' ~ All Movie Guide

This heartrending TV movie stars John Lithgow and Mary Beth Hurt as the parents of a severely handicapped premature infant. Weighing a scant 20 ounces at birth, the baby girl has no esophagus and very few signs of being able to stay alive without artificial assistance. The desperate couple sign away the responsibility of their daughter to the doctors, who feel that they can pull the girl through with extensive experimental medical work. Within a week of this agreement, the cost to the couple is $71,000, an amount that will triple before the situation can be legally resolved. Though not based on any factual case, Baby Girl Scott maintains an uncomfortable reality throughout. The film first aired on May 24, 1987. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

When speaking of Laurel and Hardy's first feature film Pardon Us, Stan Laurel described it as "a three-story building on a one-story base"-in other words, a 2-reeler stretched and bloated into 6 reels. Much the same could be said of Blake Edwards's Blind Date, though one wonders if Stan Laurel could have even gotten two reels out of its wafer-thin premise. At the outset, yuppie Bruce Willis is warned not to let his blind date, southern belle Kim Basinger, drink anything stronger than lemonade. So what does Willis do the first chance he gets? That's right, kids; he plies poor Basinger with champagne. And then he wonders why his life rapidly goes to hell in a handbasket. In his first starring movie role, Bruce Willis manages to find all sorts of nuances in his one-note role, while Kim Basinger is very funny when she's blotto-at least, for the first five minutes or so. John Laroquette costars as a character straight out of a 1920s bedroom farce; he's also pretty good, even though his dialogue is numbingly unamusing. Blake Edwards is famous for his ability to make a lot out of a little...but there has to be a limit somewhere. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Acathla, a demon turned to stone by an ancient knight, is dug up during the construction of a new housing project. Angel (David Boreanaz) steals Acathla in hopes of using the demon for the stultifyingly original purpose of opening a portal to Hell. Meanwhile, Buffy (Sarah Michelle Gellar) and Willow (Alyson Hannigan) discover the disk Jenny (Robia La Morte) saved the spell to restore Angel's soul on (see "Passion"). Despite Giles' (Anthony Stewart Head) protestations, Willow readies herself to cast the spell. Unexpectedly, Kendra (Bianca Lawson) shows up with the blessed sword of the knight who turned Acathla to stone. Soon, Angel lures Buffy away from the library and Drusilla (Juliet Landau) leads an attack to capture Giles. Subsequently, Kendra is killed. As this is the first part of the second season finale, the episode is peppered with flashbacks to other episodes highlighting important events, such as Darla (Julie Benz) siring Angel in "Angel." ~ All Movie Guide

On orders from the Mayor (Harry Groener), Faith (Eliza Dushku) retrieves the Box of Gavrok and returns it to him. Buffy soon learns of the box, an apparent accoutrement for the Ascension -- see "Graduation Day, Pt. 1." She decides to curtail the Mayor's efforts and employs Willow (Alyson Hannigan) to magically lift the supernatural protection around the box. Later, while commandeering the box, Angel (David Boreanaz) and Buffy run into some vampires, but escape with the box. Meanwhile, Faith has kidnapped Willow and the Mayor is holding her for ransom to get the Box of Gavrok back. While captured, Willow manages to sneak a look at some of the pages in the Book of Ascension. Wesley argues that holding on to the box is more important than trading for Willow, but Buffy and friends decide otherwise. As the characters near the end of their senior year, Willow and Buffy discuss attending college together in Sunnydale. ~ All Movie Guide

Angry over being human and still only in the 12th grade, Anya (Emma Caulfield) enlists Willow (Alyson Hannigan) to help her get her amulet back. Their spell goes wrong, and, instead of the amulet, brings vampire Willow back (see "The Wish"). Soon, vamp Willow recruits some vampire henchmen, takes over the Bronze and generally sullies the real Willow's nice-girl reputation. Real Willow confronts vamp Willow in the library -- are they attracted to each other? -- and manages to lock her in the book cage. She trades outfits with her vampire self and goes to the Bronze to kick some pasty vampire butt. Later in the library, Cordelia (Charisma Carpenter), mistaking vamp Willow for the nice one, lets her out of the book cage, all the while preaching to vamp Willow about stealing boyfriends. Meanwhile, Anya recognizes the real Willow at the Bronze blowing her vampire cover and causing one heck of a barroom brawl. ~ All Movie Guide

Joyce (Kristine Sutherland) is out on a slayer patrol with Buffy (Sarah Michelle Gellar) when they come across the bodies of two dead children, both bearing wierd symbols on their hands. It is Giles' (Anthony Head) view that the children may have been murdered by students practicing the occult. Joyce becomes incensed by this idea, and, with the help of Mrs. Rosenberg -- Willow's (Alyson Hannigan) mom -- forms "MOO" or Mothers Opposed to the Occult. Soon, MOO confiscates Giles' library books and other Sunnydale students begin picking on classmates suspected of occult activity. Also, the ghosts of the two dead children appear to Joyce and insist on her avenging their murder. Meanwhile, Buffy and friends discover a demon that takes on the forms of two young children -- Hans and Greta Strauss -- whose deaths engender persecutorial insincts among humans who then seek out and kill the murderer. ~ All Movie Guide

This seminal two-part episode features the end to the characters' high school careers. As the Mayor (Harry Groener) prepares for the Ascension, so do Buffy (Sarah Michelle Gellar) and her friends -- with the help of former demon Anya (Emma Caulfield). Buffy assumes that she has to miss graduation to fight the Mayor, but is amused at finding out that he will give the commencement speech. Hoping to take Buffy's attention off the Ascension, Faith (Eliza Dushka) poisons Angel (David Boreanaz). Giles (Anthony Stewart Head) and Wesley (Alexis Denisof) research a cure and find that Angel must drink the blood of a slayer. Nervous about battling with the Mayor, Willow (Alyson Hannigan) and Oz (Seth Green) grow closer. Tired of Oz's distant behavior, Willow urges him to express his panic -- which he does by kissing her. Buffy attempts to sacrifice Faith to save Angel, stabbing her -- but this, of course, is not the end of their rivalry. ~ All Movie Guide

Everyone is preparing for the night by buying their costumes at Ethan's (Robin Sachs) Costume Shop. Buffy (Sarah Michelle Gellar) wants to dress like an 18th century noblewoman -- the kind Angel (David Boreanaz) had the hots for back in the day. Willow (Alyson Hannigan), meanwhile, covers up as a ghost and Xander (Nicholas Brendon) plays against type as a macho military soldier. The night starts out great until Ethan, a mystic, casts a spell causing everyone to take on the characteristics of their costume. Buffy becomes a helpless weakling, Xander goes all Rambo, and Willow can run through doors -- closed doors. The spell is discovered as Cordelia (Charisma Carpenter), dressed in a cat outfit from another store, does not act like a cat -- at least not any more than usual. Giles (Anthony Stewart Head), an old acquaintance of Ethan's, uncharacteristically beats the spell reversal out of him. This encounter is the first glimpse of Giles' sketchy past with the occult. ~ All Movie Guide

The stuck-up attitude of Cordelia (Charisma Carpenter) comes back to hurt her in this important first-year episode. While campaigning to be crowned Sunnydale High's May Queen, Cordelia's date is clubbed to death by a possessed baseball bat. A friend of Cordelia's then falls down some stairs, leading Buffy to believe that an invisible assailant might be at work in Sunnydale. Soon enough, Buffy discovers evidence of a girl named Marcia Ross (Clea DuVall) living in the recesses of Sunnydale High. Among her belongings, she finds a yearbook signed by Xander (Nicholas Brendon) and Willow (Alyson Hannigan), although no one seems to remember the girl. Treated as invisible for so long, Marcia has actually become invisible and is exacting revenge upon her classmates. Buffy finds a way of stopping her before she can kill Cordelia, creating some goodwill between the two. By the end, Marcia is taken away by federal agents to be rehabilitated at a school for other invisible students, foreshadowing other political entanglements Buffy will encounter in future seasons. Another point of interest in this episode is the first meeting between Angel (David Boreanaz) and Giles (Anthony Stewart Head). ~ All Movie Guide

Crashing his DeSoto Sportsman into the "Welcome to Sunnydale" sign and proclaiming, "Home, sweet home," viewers meet the vampire named Spike (James Marsters), along with his equally sardonic vamp girlfriend, Drusilla (Juliet Landau) -- a fitting introduction for two vampires who will become among the show's most memorable and reliable villains. Apparently a vampire couple -- a first for the show -- these love bats have a history with Angel (David Boreanaz). The audience learns that Spike (aka "William the Bloody") is a 200-year-old vampire sired by Angel, who earned his name by killing his victims with railroad spikes. He is utterly devoted to "Dru," who is sickly, possibly insane, and subject to psychic visions. At a meeting of vampires with the Anointed One (Andrew J. Ferchland), Spike brags about having killed two slayers in his "life," and manages to slide in some of his soon to-be-characteristic humorous asides. Unable to contain himself until the Festival of St. Vigeous, Spike and some vampires attack Sunnydale High on Parent-Teacher Night; Buffy fights them off with some help from her mom, who repels Spike with an ax. In the aftermath, Principal Snyder (Armin Shimerman) discusses the need to hide the real story from the press -- a hint that he might know something about the supernatural occurrences in Sunnydale. ~ All Movie Guide

Everyone returns from summer vacation with unresolved issues that they're just itching to uncover. Willow (Alyson Hannigan) and Xander (Nicholas Brendon) flirtatiously eat ice cream together, and after Xander licks ice cream off Willow's nose -- perhaps about to kiss her -- they are rudely interrupted by a vampire who wants something other than sweet treats. Buffy (Sarah Michelle Gellar), who spent the summer with her father, saves them from the attack, the first such attempted biting since the Master's death. The trio's happy reunion is short-lived though, as Buffy is clearly distant, irritable, and wanting to get on with her Slayer training. She is overly mean to Cordelia (Charisma Carpenter), blows off Angel (David Boreanaz), and seductively slow dances with Xander at The Bronze, making everybody uncomfortable. Her bad attitude is exacerbated after having a nightmare in which Giles (Anthony Stewart Head) attacks her while Willow and Xander idly watch. This all karmically leads up to the disappearance of the Master's bones. Giles researches a revivification rite, suspecting that someone might be trying to resurrect the Master. Giles accidentally mistranslates the text and he, Willow, Cordelia, and Jenny (Robia La Morte) are taken by the Anointed One (Andrew J. Ferchland) and his new minion Absalom (Brent Jennings) to complete the ceremony. Buffy comes to save them, and in doing so, cathartically takes a sledgehammer to the Master's bones. This episode is the first in which Angel was listed as an official cast member. ~ All Movie Guide